UNGA 2023
A Week of Commitment: Justice at the 2023 SDG Summit and United Nations General Assembly
Last week, world leaders and the global development community convened in New York to assess the state of world affairs and review the progress made on the SDGs.
It was a busy, exciting, and productive week for many issues–including justice. Some of our key highlights and takeaways included:
Pathfinders in action
On Wednesday, September 20th, Pathfinders for Peaceful, Just and Inclusive Societies co-hosted an event with partners called Delivering on the Promise of the SDGs Through Strong Institutions. Across all pillars of SDG16+ (peace, justice, equality and inclusion), presenters and panelists discussed ways to transform ambition into action. A key focus was localization–in particular, four key points stood out: 1) the need to work collaboratively with civil society; 2) the importance of translating the SDGs in contextualized and relevant ways by working with local governments; 3) institutionalizing SDG ambitions through budget commitments; and 4) supporting local governments and non-government actors through tools, data, evidence, and budget commitments.
H.E. Marcel de Vink, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of the Netherlands kicked things off by highlighting the importance of justice in achieving SDGs and of cross-regional and multistakeholder partnerships such as the Justice Action Coalition, which “was born out of an urgent need to increase collaboration to close the justice gap.” He emphasized the commitment of the Coalition member states and partners to undertake “joint action to realize access to justice for all by 2030.”
Addressing the challenge of transitioning global ambitions into local reality, Rohey Malick Lowe, Mayor of Banjul, The Gambia observed, “Many…people don’t know what the SDGs are. It is extremely important to put emphasis on the location and on advocacy, especially in Africa.”
She further emphasized the need for localized understanding and a focus on gender. Speaking about Africa, she pointed out that on “a continent where traditional and cultural norms are telling women that they belong in the house, that they don’t have rights other than taking care of the house and the babies… Where is the justice [for] women?”
Continuing the theme on localization, H.E. Ms. Yill Otero, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Republic of Panama, reflected on Panama’s strong commitment to the SDGs despite its small size and the challenges raised during COVID-19. She concluded, “Without the SDGs, we wouldn’t be able to come up with these plans. Having established goals helped realize that, despite the pandemic, a goal still has to be achieved.”
Reflecting on the spectrum of issues intersecting through the SDG agenda, including climate, gender, and others, Ulrika Modéer, Assistant Secretary-General, Director of the Bureau of External Relations and Advocacy, UNDP, called attention to the role of data and evidence in achieving the SDGs, noting they will allow countries “to understand better how to unlock different resources and get back on track and accelerate the SDGs.”
In her comments on the importance of giving youth a seat at the table, Cecilia Zade Iseni, Youth Delegate to the UN for Democracy and Partnerships, Denmark, made the case that youth are the best advocates to increase resourcing and emphasized “Young people are future-minded, and we want substantive financing. We know that none of the SDGs can be achieved without financing.”
Abdul Tejan-Cole, Coordinator for African Center for Excellence for Access to Justice, also emphasized the broad implications of justice across the development sector: “Many people look at justice in an insular way: access to the court. Justice is much bigger and broader than that. Justice is about fairness, access to services, inclusivity…It is a prerequisite for sustainable development.”
Echoing that theme, H.E. Bendito dos Santos Freitas, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, mentioned that justice is central to his country’s history and said “it is very important to put people at the center of development.”
In her concluding remarks, Sarah Cliffe, Executive Director, Center on International Cooperation, New York University, reiterated that SDG16+ is an essential enabler and deeply intertwined with other SDGs. She highlighted the centrality of people to the 2030 Agenda, describing SDG16+ as conveying what is at the heart of people’s biggest challenges and hopes–and offering the promise of hope on both fronts. Looking forward, she emphasized the interlinkages among issues across the development spectrum, the pre-eminence of data, the need for a stronger business case for SDG16+, and the importance of cross-regional engagement. While noting that we remain only at the halfway mark of the SDGs, she reminded the audience that financing, commitments and action on the ground– even in the face of backlash–are critical to turning ambition into reality.
The key takeaways from the event for justice stakeholders were:
- Justice is essential to building peaceful, just, and inclusive societies and to achieveing the SDGs.
- Justice policies and systems should be data driven and evidence-based (.e., driven by people’s needs, problems, and experiences).
- We must deliver results (fair outcomes for people) on the ground, for which we need localization, effective financing, and multi stakeholder partnerships at domestic, regional, and global levels.
Prioritizing justice on the global agenda
In the official comments made during the plenary of the Second SDG Summit, several world leaders also called attention to justice in their remarks. H.E. Julius Maada Wonie Bio, President of Sierra Leone, spoke on behalf of the g7+, saying “We have collectively learned through our experiences that sustainable peace, effective State institutions and access to justice are key pillars to stability, development, and resilience.”
Following President Bio, H.E. Petr Pavel, President of the Czech Republic, spoke on behalf of Pathfinders, once again highlighted the Justice Action Coalition as a high-impact coalition, and emphasizing that “to reach our common goals in 2030, we urgently need to highlight a link between peace, justice, security, development, human rights and strong institutions.”
These leaders emphasized that achieving the SDG agenda requires elevating justice as a core focus. The political declaration adopted at the SDG Summit also reaffirmed the “need to build peaceful, just and inclusive societies that provide equal access to justice and that are based on respect for human rights (including the right to development).”
Partners at the center
The Pathfinders and our partners continued to highlight the importance of collective efforts in addressing the global justice gap. Together, we hosted and participated in several events over the course of UNGA 2023 and the SDG Summit last week to draw attention to people-centered justice as an integral part of the development agenda.
- Mobilizing Collaboration and Resources for People-Centered Justice, co-hosted by HiiL, the UN Foundation, and Pathfinders, brought together bilateral donors like USAID and the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, multilateral partners such the World Bank, and key philanthropic organizations. These leaders discussed ways to ensure equal access to justice for all, advancing data-driven strategies, and driving innovation through evidence-based financing to center people’s needs.The discussion focused on the importance of the intersections among justice and other SDG priority areas, including climate, gender, equality, employment, peace, and more, as well as its centrality in achieving sustainable development. When discussing ways to make a strong case for investing in justice, participants highlighted that beyond showing how injustices impact GDP, the justice for all movement must also combat negative narratives around investments in justice by elevating the promise of outcomes-based, people-centered approaches. Moving forward, justice partners will work together to evolve a framework for financing justice.
- Strengthening Access to Justice: Bridging the Gap between Lawyers and Community Practitioners: The Vance Center and the African Center of Excellence for Access to Justice (ACE-AJ) hosted a convening to explore collaborative strategies, share best practices, and discuss innovative models to enhance access to justice for marginalized communities. The speakers representing ACE-AJ highlighted the cost-effective and impactful outcomes of community-based paralegals and practitioners, while emphasizing barriers to scale like insufficient funding and collaboration with the legal fraternity, amongst other stakeholders. The speakers from the Vance Center Committee highlighted some of their pro bono initiatives around the world while their Africa Program Director moderated a discussion exploring people-centered approaches and increased collaboration to advance equal access to justice for all.
In these and other events, partners showcased a deep commitment to advancing progress towards the SDG agenda–especially ensuring justice has a seat at the table.
